Sverdlovsk anthrax leak
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The Sverdlovsk anthrax leak was an incident in which spores of anthrax were accidentally released from the Sverdlovsk-19a military research facility on the southern edge of the city of Sverdlovsk (formerly, and now again, Yekaterinburg) on April 2, 1979. This accident is sometimes called "biological Chernobyl". The ensuing outbreak of the disease resulted in approximately 100 deaths, although the exact number of victims remains unknown. The cause of the outbreak had for years been denied by the Soviet Union, which blamed the deaths on intestinal exposure due to the consumption of tainted meat from the area, and subcutaneous exposure due to butchers handling the tainted meat. All medical records of the victims had been removed in order to avoid revelations of serious violations of the Biological Weapons Convention.
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